


Weird kids; even weirder circumstances

by SaltinesAndPeanutButter



Category: Titanic (1997)
Genre: F/M, headcanons, mentions of abuse, noncanon stuff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-17
Updated: 2018-01-17
Packaged: 2019-03-05 23:52:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,256
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13398924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SaltinesAndPeanutButter/pseuds/SaltinesAndPeanutButter
Summary: You can interpret the setting however you want- I'm not entirely sure if I even know what's going on here besides this being set sometime shortly after the sinking. If the dialogue seems robotic and stiff that's on purpose because I imagine that both of them would be kind of messed up afterwards and not really feeling like themselves. The bare-bones style is on purpose because almost every Titanic fanfiction I've read has nearly the same plot and melodramatic tone (which isn't necessarily bad nor do I dislike it!), and I didn't want to do a rehash. My aim is to shed some admittedly non-canon light on Jack and Rose's childhoods and why they are the way that they are.





	Weird kids; even weirder circumstances

**Author's Note:**

> You can interpret the setting however you want- I'm not entirely sure if I even know what's going on here besides this being set sometime shortly after the sinking. If the dialogue seems robotic and stiff that's on purpose because I imagine that both of them would be kind of messed up afterwards and not really feeling like themselves. The bare-bones style is on purpose because almost every Titanic fanfiction I've read has nearly the same plot and melodramatic tone (which isn't necessarily bad nor do I dislike it!), and I didn't want to do a rehash. My aim is to shed some admittedly non-canon light on Jack and Rose's childhoods and why they are the way that they are.

“I was a weird kid. Being an only child made me very lonely, I didn't have a single friend until I met Fabrizio after I left."

"I was an only child too. I socialized with the children of other families we knew but they never liked me very much."

"You know how it feels, right? The loneliness that infests you to the point where it warps your mind?"

"Yeah. I do."

"I never was around kids my own age much like you were. My family lived so far out of the way that the only time I seen any other kids was at school."

"What were your parents like, Jack?"

"My mom was great. I took after her in a lot of ways- but my dad was something else. When I was younger I looked up to him, like all young boys do I guess. Even though he beat my mom, I still loved him. It takes a lot to make a four-year-old hate their own parent. He would get drunk and hit my mom, though he never laid a finger on me. The worst he ever did to me was whip me with his belt across the backs of my legs."

"That's still terrible."

"But what can I do about it now? They're both dead. I was fifteen and they told me they were going out of town for a few days, which wasn't an uncommon occurrence. About a week and a half passed and it was the middle of December which had me worried since we were in the middle of a blizzard. But I lived on until one of our neighbors showed up at my door after dark, which scared me half to death, and told me they found my parents dead in the forest. Probably froze or starved to death. It's pretty common for people to get lost in blizzards. This neighbor- Mr. Anderson, was his name- did offer to take me in but I knew he wasn't fond of me, so I lied and told him I would go to live with a cousin of mine in Virginia. I didn't take anything with me except a pocket knife and seventy-five cents."

"I'm so sorry to hear about all of that."

"It's ok. It was for the best; I don't know what would've happened to me if my parents lived or if I went to live with Mr. Anderson."

"If it makes you feel any better, I had a good father. Until he died, at least. He liked me a lot more than mother did. She was always so critical of me, whereas it seemed like I was his pride and joy."

"I was like that with my mom. Me and her used to do lots of stuff together- I helped her cook, clean, sew and lots of other stuff. But dad would always come in and interrupt it, telling me to go outside and till the garden or some other bullshit like that so he could take his anger out on mom. I guess he worried about me turning out a sissy. Hell, maybe if I was a girl he would've beat me too. I don't like to think about it too much- there's no use now."

"Mother never told me to my face but I always knew she wanted a boy. I think that's why she was so hard on me- she was taking out her disappointment."

"That's not right."

"I know. Raising a girl meant she'd have to do more of the work than father- and she'd barely lifted a finger once in her life. But father did his best by me until he succumbed to the flu. He was against marrying me off- mother discussed it with him before he passed, and he never approved."

"What kind of school did you go to?"

"I never went to school. My parents hired private tutors who lived with us until she got annoyed with my insolence. I would often act up during lessons out of boredom, which my dad found amusing, but mother begged to differ. The only lessons I particularly liked were arithmetic but those lasted only about a year and a half, being deemed as not important enough for me to know."

"I went to a school house whenever I managed to, but half the time dad would ask me to do some work early in the morning which would make me late. 'Jack, carry some wood in for the fire. Why don't you rake those leaves, Jack? Jack, would you sweep the porch before you head out?' Eventually I just quit going. I could tell he was doing it on purpose because he didn't want me to go to school. Maybe he wanted to keep me there with him forever, so I would suffer instead of making something of myself. But I genuinely did enjoy school. Even though all the other kids hated me I usually managed to have some of the best grades in class. My teacher liked me, in the very least. She told me once that I’ve got a brain like a sponge. I actually cried when I was walking home on my last day of school because it was my only escape. I wonder what she’s doing with her life now?"

"I wish I could've gone to an actual school. I got so restless sitting around in the house all day. Mother forbade me from being outdoors for too long for fear of me developing a tan and she fretted so much about me developing freckles that she'd rub my face with lemons! Father put a stop to that. He thought it was cruel and silly. Mother still did it from time to time though."

"How did you meet Fabrizio?"

"After I left, I slowly Made my way from Wisconsin to the southwest, to the east, then to the northeast in New York. By the time I ended up in New York I was eighteen. I can't recall exactly how I met Fabrizio, but I believe we met on the street. I'll be honest, I don't remember much from those first few years- I was just trying to survive and I hadn't learned how to appreciate the lifestyle yet. But Fabrizio is who convinced me to pursue artistry and shortly after we met I started selling portraits in central park which in addition to the work he was doing allowed us to rent a room to keep out of the cold weather. Once I got to know him he told me that his parents kicked him out when he turned sixteen, but he never told me exactly why. But he ended up being my first friend. My best friend, in fact. It's such a shame what happened to him."

"I never had anyone I could call a friend until I met you, Jack. I was always a social outcast, but I always tried to play my part well."

"I'm happy to be your first friend. I know how that feels- to be constantly playing a part. It was too tiring- that's why I stopped trying after I left. I figured if I was gonna be a traveler, only knowing people for a few weeks at a time, why should I try to cater to them? What was the point? Even when I did try to play a part I wasn't very popular, so I had nothing to lose. I was always a weird kid without a doubt.”

“I was a weird kid too."


End file.
